sue. . . .

"I said 'provisionally.'" It was Mr. Trask's voice, speaking at his
elbow. "Nay, man, don't strike me; since you meant business, 'tis
yourself you should strike for a fool. You were a fool to invite me;
but she was scared before ever she caught sight of _me_--by that
buck-parson of yours, I guess."

He had fetched Bayard, had mounted, and was after her. He pulled rein
at her lodgings. Yes, Mr. Strongtharm had seen her go by.
The old fellow did not guess what was amiss; as how should he?
"It's cruel for the mare's hoofs," he commented, "forcing her that pace
on the hard road. She rides well, s' far as ridin' goes; but the best
womankind on horseback has neither bowels nor understandin'."

He pointed towards Soldiers' Gap. "She rides there most days," he said;
"but it can't be far. There's no Christian road for a horse, once
you're past the second fall."

Oliver Vyell struck spur and followed. Already he had the decency to
curse himself, but not yet could he understand his transgressing.

"Your atheism"--Mr. Trask had said it--"makes you dull in spiritual
understanding."

Sceptics are of two orders, and religious disputants gain a potential
advantage, but miss truth, by confusing them. Oliver Vyell was dull,
and his dullness had betrayed him, precisely because his reason was so
lucid and logical that it shut out those half-tones in which abide all
men's, all women's, tenderest feelings. He knew that Ruth had no more
faith than he in Christian dogma; no faith at all in what a minister's
intervention could do to sanctify marriage. He had inferred that she
must consider the tying of the knot by Mr. Silk, if not as a fair jest,
at least as a gentle mockery, the humour of which he and she would
afterwards taste together. Why had she not pleaded against rite of any
kind? . . . Besides, the dog had once insulted her with a proposal.
Sir Oliver never allowed Mr. Silk to guess that he had surprised his
secret; and Mr. Silk, tortuous himself in all ways, could not begin to
be on terms with a candid soul such as Ruth's, craving in all things to
be open where it loves. Sir Oliver had supposed it a pretty lesson to
put on a calm, negligent face, and command the parson, who dared not
disobey, to perform the ceremony. Mr. Silk had cringed.

Likewise, when inviting Mr. Trask to the nuptials, he had looked on him
but as a witness to his triumph. The very man who had sentenced her to
degradation--was